*** Important info on new qualifying format below...keep reading/scrolling!!! ***

The Carolina Invitational Wrestling Tournament, sponsored and run by the South Carolina Wrestling Coaches Association (SCWCA),
is the last tournament of the season for the qualified South Carolina Junior Varsity and Middle School wrestlers. This
prestigious tournament awards the top 4 places in 14 Junior Varsity weight classes and 17 Middle School weight classes.
In 2011, we added a Girls Division to our tournament and it was a great success to expose the lady wrestlers of South
Carolina to such a great event.

In 1974, Sullivan Junior High coach Hank Hammond started
the Carolina Invitational wrestling tournament. The event was held at the Northside Center in Rock Hill, SC and a grand total
of 88 wrestlers in 7th thru 9th grades competed in the first event. Almost 30 years later, 1,068 wrestlers crowded in to Rock
Hill High School gymnasiums and set the record for the largest number of wrestlers in attendance at the Carolina Invitational.
Due to the growth of the sport at the Junior Varsity and Middle School levels, the Carolina Invitational adopted a system in
2007 of using existing JV and MS tournaments around the state as qualifying tournaments. Wrestlers would have the opportunity
to wrestle their way to an invitation to the big event, The Carolina Invitational.

The SCWCA ran The Carolina Invitational for the first time
in 2009, taking over the event from the founder Hank Hammond. The SCWCA strives year in and year out to run the event in the
quality manner and standard that Hank set over the years he ran the event. Mr. Hammond's gracious gift to the coaches has provided
the SCWCA the opportunity to generate revenue for some meaningful projects, including sizable donations to the Herlong Scholarship
program (provides aid to children of high school coaches headed to college), opportunity to annually host a first rate All-Star match
for the outstanding senior wrestlers of SC and help fund the South Carolina chapter of the National Wrestling Coaches Association Hall
of Fame in Stillwater, OK.

The SCWCA also hosts the South Carolina Senior All-Stars
in the Best Western North-South All-Star Classic wrestling event, hosted by North Myrtle Beach High School in beautiful
North Myrtle Beach, SC, at the end of every wrestling season. The SCWCA does a lot of work to support the wrestlers of
South Carolina with the awesome events it hosts.

The Carolina Invitational
Wrestling Tournament changed its format this year for qualification to the final tournament. There will be 9 Area tournaments run
on December 20, 2014 and January 10, 2015. The top 6 placers from each of these tournaments, except for the Area 7 tournament, will
move in to 4 sectional tournaments. Sectional tournaments will be run on January 17, 2015 and qualifying wrestlers to the Carolina
Invitational. The breakdown of areas, sectionals and qualifiers is as follows:

The Carolina Invitational

16 man bracket of qualifiers from 4 Sectional and Area 7 Tournaments

Girls Division for female entrants

Tournament run on 8 mats and places top 4 finishers in each weight class